Predatory Business

On this day:

14
Tiberius is confirmed as Roman Emperor by the Roman Senate following the natural death of Augustus
324
Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine’s sole control over the Roman Empire.
1812
The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
1885
Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
1895
Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
1944
World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1975
Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
2001
First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

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People who came to Hollywood used to want to be "great — a great singer, great actor, great comedian. Now it’s just fame, and the greatness is almost assumed."--Chris Rock

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History shows that free exchange is constantly at risk of being infected and captured by parasites and predators who live off productive people through taxes, tithes, rents, slavery, subsidies, war, and theft. This is what killed the goose in ancient Greece and Rome, in Renaissance Italy and Holland’s golden age. From time to time anti-oligarchic insurgents are needed to purge the parasites, expel the predators, and free the economy from their burden.
Now, says Carswell, in his book Rebel, is such a time.--ridley

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Is competition from Alaska more or less damaging than competition from Mexico? Should they have tariffs?

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A short on GDP:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnkEhPBMZcEO0QGu51fDFDg

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Predatory Business

There was a time when social trajectory and limits led to what was called 'the underclass,' a small group of traditional social and economic failures whose solution to their problems was to prey on the achievers. This has been true in both individual and national conditions. How this disparity was accommodated determined much of the direction of international and national affairs. So Cuba and North Korea became little bullies and international threats, but bribes and subsidies 'gave peace a chance.' Much of Africa became social charity labs. Modern America became a vast economic transfer system where the unproductive were bribed with trillions of taxed and borrowed dollars to leave the productive people alone, like the Barbary pirates of long ago.

When these unproductive predators organize, it is called a riot. When a lot of them riot, it is called socialism.